


Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

by thebrightestbird



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, Humor, M/M, Meta, Unconventional structure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 16:26:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11559012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebrightestbird/pseuds/thebrightestbird
Summary: The Chitauri return, this time invading Los Angeles. The Avengers call on the Power Rangers to help them save the day.Also, Zack gets trapped with Bucky underneath a Trader Joe's. They bitch about magical alien rocks and bond over their affection for blond superheroes.





	Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

**Author's Note:**

> It's my usual Jason/Zack fluff. This time with Avengers and a lot of snarky meta commentary. Also, I admit to using an incorrect quote for one of the things Zack says because it's my favorite when thinking about Zack and Jason's relationship.
> 
> Basically, this story is a big, weird, hopefully fun mess.
> 
> Warning for cursing and references to underage sex.

The Rangers watch the news on Billy’s laptop in his basement. The Chitauri have returned, this time in Los Angeles. Even though Angel Grove is more than an hour away, classes were canceled and residents were urged to stay at home.

The Avengers are on the scene, fighting as they had during the first invasion in New York. But the Chitauri brought more Leviathans – those big, skeletal ships – and the Hulk did not seem to be able to smash them at a fast-enough rate.

The reporter on the ground pauses to say that Captain America has a message he needs to send out to the world. The camera quickly pans to the superhero in his iconic red, white, and blue uniform, which is noticeably singed and marred from the fight. He’s standing upright, gripping his shield closely in front, but despite the imposing stance, his heavy breathing and strained face betray him.

“Citizens of Los Angeles and the world,” the Captain begins, “the Avengers are still at full force battling the latest invasion by the Chitauri, and we will keep the fight going as long as there’s still breath in our bodies. But I’m afraid this time around we are truly outgunned. They’ve brought more of their vessels, and we don’t have big enough equipment that equals them. But there is one team of heroes that does.”

The Rangers look at one another at that moment, somehow sensing what Captain America is about to say next.

“Power Rangers, if you’re out there, we need you.”

||

The teenagers cram into Jason’s truck and reach the spaceship in record time since no one’s out on the streets of Angel Grove.

They’ve been quiet the entire time, but once they’re surrounding the morphing grid, everyone’s excitement and jitters spill out at once.

“Jason, Jason!” Billy shouts. “Are we really going to meet Iron Man? We’re really going to meet Iron Man!”

“Forget Iron Man,” Trini says. “I cannot wait to see Black Widow in action.”

Trini and Kimberly exchange looks of wonder.

“God, seeing Black Widow is gonna be awesome!” Zack agrees. “But guys, Thor’s gonna be there! And Captain America! What I wouldn’t give to be pressed between those two-”

“Zack!” Jason interrupts.

“What? Oh, come on, Red. You know you’re the only blond for me.” He winks and gazes shamelessly at Jason.

The team leader just shakes his head and clears his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Guys, focus. I get that meeting the Avengers is exciting. But they’re in trouble, and if they lose in LA, the whole world’s in peril.” He looks at each of his teammates to ensure they are absorbing what he’s saying and to encourage their resolves. “We’ve done this before. We fought Rita and won. It’s time to prove again that we are as much Earth’s mightiest heroes as the Avengers are.”

They all nod in solidarity.

“All right,” Jason says. “It’s morphin’ time!”

||

Since Kimberly is the only one who flies and will get to Los Angeles first, she’s in charge of alerting the Avengers that they’re en route and to immediately help with the fighting.

As she approaches the city, she takes in the scene. It’s chaos, to put it mildly. She’s close enough to make out Iron Man soaring above a pod of three Leviathans, blasting them with whatever he’s got.

“Hey, Blue? Do you think we can patch our comm systems into the Avengers’?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Billy says. “The communications tech in our suits can be controlled through our Zords. It’s so advanced, it probably beats out Tony Stark’s stuff. Let me try some things.”

Kim can hear Billy squeeing a bit to himself and muttering how cool it is to hack into the Avengers’ systems. It’s about a minute before he shouts “done!” and then she can hear all kinds of chatter in her helmet. She takes a deep breath to center herself.

“Avengers, this is the Pink Ranger of the Power Rangers. We received your message of distress and are coming to assist you. I’m approaching the city from the north. The four other Rangers are on their way and should arrive in about 10 minutes.”

“Uh, wild guess, but you’re the one in the pink pterodactyl? Hot,” she hears someone say. “Oh, it’s Iron Man, BTW. How’d you hack our comm system? Neat trick.”

“Nevermind that, Mr. Stark. I’m here to assist. Let me know where to start.”

“Uhhh,” he draws out while trying to drag the last of the Leviathans in his pod further away from the buildings. “Shoot this thing, please.”

“My pleasure.” Kim holds down the charge button on her cannon and releases a blast right at the heart of the vessel. Much of it disintegrates from the heat, and it crumbles to the ground.

“Impressive, Pinky,” Iron Man says with a whistle. “Now, do that fifty more times, and we’ll be done by dinnertime.”

“On it!” Kim flies without a second thought straight into the fight.

||

“Pink, we’re here!” Trini says as soon as she sees Kimberly flying above her.

“About time, guys! Me and the Avengers have been bonding without you,” Kim blasts another Leviathan right from under the Hulk’s feet. He looks miffed but gets distracted by yet another vessel. “Captain America, meet my team!”

The leader of the Avengers and Black Widow are battling Chitauri on Hollywood Boulevard. “Thanks for answering my message for help, Power Rangers,” he says over the comms.

Jason is mentally slapping himself at the sound of his voice. It’s really Captain America! _Okay, Scott, you got this_. “This is the Red Ranger, sir. It’s an honor you called on us.”

“Dude, are you driving the T-rex?” someone else asks Jason. “Nat, are you seeing this?”

“Black Widow here. Yes, Clint, I see it.” She nails a few Chitauri with her Widow’s Bite. “Show some professionalism and introduce yourself.”

“Oh, right. Sorry, Rangers. Hawkeye here. I’m shooting down baddies and calling shots on top of the Capitol Records Building. Those are some kickass dino cars.”

“Uh, thank you,” Jason answers Hawkeye ( _Hawkeye!!!_ ). “Captain, can you direct us to where we’re needed?”

The Captain winces after he decapitates a Chitauri. He kind of didn’t mean to do that. He shrugs it off. “Red Ranger, to be honest, just start shooting and tackling as many of the Leviathans as you can get to. Pink Ranger has been helping Hawkeye in the sky by calling shots. Iron Man and Thor are in the air fighting the vessels too, but now that you’re here, you two need to split your focus with the Chitauri ground forces. Understood?”

Lightning suddenly crackles down the boulevard, frying the scattered Chitauri roaming the street. “I’m here, Captain,” Thor says.

“Aye aye, Captain,” Iron Man says. “Pinky seems to have things under control in the air. Headed your way.”

“Hawkeye, you got eyes on Winter Soldier?”

“Yeah, Cap. He’s about ten blocks to your right. Bucky, watch your back!”

A grunt can be heard then, followed by a gruff voice. “Thanks, Barton.”

“All right, Pink, you’re calling the shots,” Jason says. “Yellow, you’re the most agile. Veer off to the left and pick off some stray Chitauri, but tackle any Leviathans you get to. They’re our priority.”

“Got it!” Trini confirms and sprints off.

“Same with you, Black,” Jason continues. “But go into the more open areas to the right and make good use of that turning radius of yours.”

“Aww, Red, if you wanted to check out my backside, you just had to ask.” Zack barrels ahead of Jason and Billy but makes a sharp right just because he can.

“Blue, you and me are going straight through Hollywood Boulevard and work with the Avengers.”

“Wahoo! We got this!” Billy answers.

||

“Uh, Red, I don’t think we got this.” Zack is in the middle of a hoard of Chitauri. And he thought Putties were bad.

Jason is blasting yet another Leviathan. He lost count at maybe eight. “We’re doing great … I think. Pink, how’s it looking?”

“Yeah, keep it up, guys. The number of ships is way down. Iron Man, are there more coming?”

Stark is back in the air helping her. “Luckily, this time around there’s no portal. According to the satellites, it’s a finite number of ships. So, we defeat this army, and we’re golden.”

“Uh, Mr. Iron Man, sir? Blue Ranger here. Big, big fan. You easily beat Elon Musk in my top five aeronautically inclined billionaire engineers. You know, I was thinking of majoring in engineering-”

“Blue!” Jason cuts in. “You got something to ask about the battle?”

“Oh, right! Right, Red. Sorry. Yeah, about this invasion. Why in LA? I get that it’s a major population, but the Chitauri seem to be fighting _and_ protecting something.”

“Blue’s right,” Trini says. “If they were really invading, wouldn’t they split up their efforts?” She claws into another Leviathan and bites its head off for good measure. God, she loves her Zord.

“Excellent deductions,” Stark says. “Short answer: We don’t know what they’re protecting.”

“But if we cut back their forces enough, we might get a breather to figure that out,” Captain America adds.

“It’s working,” Hawkeye says. “With the help of the Power Rangers, we’re really doing a number on the vessels and the Chitauri forces.”

“Everyone, I’ve got eyes on the Winter Soldier,” Kim interrupts. “He’s pinned by a concentration of Chitauri near the Trader Joe’s.”

“Buck, can you hear us?!” He doesn’t respond to the Captain. “Hell, something must have happened to his comm. I’ll get to him!”

“Cap, no! You’re too far,” Kim says. “The closest backup is the Black Ranger.”

 Without hesitation, Zack surveys the terrain to spot the Trader Joe’s. “I’m on my way!”

“Black, you can’t bring your Zord into the area!” Kim yells. “All the buildings are on the verge of collapsing and something tells me the ground isn’t as solid as it should be.”

“Pinky’s right,” Iron Man says, his electronic voice strained because he’s in the middle of battling another vessel. “I just scanned the area. The foundation, simply put, is shit. There’s a matrix of tunnels and caverns underground. Surprised the area hasn’t already crumbled since this is earthquake central.”

“All right, I’m a couple of blocks away,” Zack says. “I’m jumping out of my Zord to help him fight.”

“Thank you, Black Ranger,” Captain America says.

“No worries, Cap. It’s practically my patriotic duty to protect your boyfriend.” Zack is double-timing it on foot, climbing over rubble. “Just do me a solid and return the favor with mine.”

Jason’s been anxiously listening the entire time, but he’s been busy with the fight. And, of course, what Zack says distracts him. “ _What?!_ ” he yells at the same time a Leviathan’s tail smacks him in the head. He quickly retaliates by blasting the tail off. “Uhhh,” it takes all of Jason’s focus not to keep from using Zack’s name, “Black? Could you explain what you just said?”

“Sorry, no time to talk, boss! Baddies to punch!” Then Jason indeed hears the satisfying screams of the Chitauri.

Zack spots the Winter Soldier managing to hold off the alien foes with what has to be his last rounds in an impressive gun. Zack has his Power Ax, chopping through the crowd. He amps up his voice to get the man’s attention. “Winter Soldier, you’re going to want to duck now!” He quickly flips the weapon around and fires the ax’s blaster end.

He gets them all.

Zack hoofs over to the still ducking Winter Soldier. “They’re dead, bro. You can get up now.”

Bucky slowly lowers his arms from over his head and looks up at the Black Ranger, who’s offering his hand to help him up. He then looks around at the litter of Chitauri bodies, smoke rising from them. He looks back at the offered hand and wordlessly takes the assist.

Zack’s unnerved by the silent treatment he’s getting. (He just saved the dude’s life; a thank-you would be nice.) But Jason’s voice breaks through. “Black, report!”

“We’re alive. They’re dead.”

He hears quite a few relieved sighs in response. Then the ground beneath them cracks loudly.

They’re falling.

||

“Oh, shit!” Kim exclaims. “There’s a huge sinkhole.”

“Black! Black Ranger!” All the Rangers are screaming. There’s no response.

Unfortunately, there’s still fighting to be done and everyone’s multitasking while keeping up pleas for Zack to respond.

“Shit, everyone, get it together!” Black Widow gets their attention. “We can’t afford to lose another person in this fight. We’ve almost got them beat.”

Captain America gives a fierce growl. “We’ve got to keep the fight going. None of us can break away to check on Bucky and the Black Ranger.”

“The Avengers are right,” Jason forces out while slamming his fists down on his console in a private release of frustration. “Rangers, keep fighting. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get our men.”

The Power Rangers and Avengers respond in an explosion of firepower, smashing, and thunder.

||

Zack’s entire body is throbbing, especially his left leg. He keeps his eyes closed to recollect the reasons he feels like he got smashed by yet another train.

Oh, yeah. Big battle with ugly aliens. Fell through a hole in the ground. Good times.

He finally musters the strength to open his eyes and is met with a faceful of Winter Soldier. “What the hell, dude?!” He jolts upright, then screams from the pain. He looks down at his leg. Shit, it’s dislocated at the knee.

Amazingly, that’s not his biggest issue at the moment because he quickly realizes he’s not morphed – and the Winter Soldier is still staring at him.

“I think this is yours,” the Winter Soldier says, holding his Power Coin out to him. It must have dislodged from the armor when he hit the ground.

Zack slowly reaches for it and squeezes it in his fist, shaking his head at his failure to keep himself morphed and concealed. He forgets about his leg for a moment, which means he accidentally shifts it and moans from the pain.

“I can put that back in place,” Bucky says, motioning at his leg. “It’s gonna hurt like a motherfucker though.”

Zack, still feeling the burn of shame of compromising the Rangers’ identities, just nods his assent.

The man carefully places his hands around the leg. Zack mindlessly focuses on the metal hand. It’s still kind of shiny despite the rigorous work it’s likely been put through these last few hours.

The Winter Soldier looks up and patiently waits for Zack to look back. Once they’ve locked eyes, a surprising smile breaks out on the man’s face. “So, are you fucking the Red Ranger?”

“WHAT?!!!” Zack barely shouts out before he’s screaming because the Winter Soldier just put his knee back in place. “Oh, my God, what the fuck, dude,” Zack groans, followed by a string of nonsense and curse words, helping him get through the lingering pain.

The man just laughs at him. “Sorry, I was trying to distract you. Supposed to help.”

“You’re probably a sadist is what I think.”

The Winter Soldier huffs and leaves his smile in place. “I owed you one. Thanks for what you did up there.”

At hearing the thanks he had been waiting for just minutes ago, Zack becomes aware again of how exposed he is and looks down at the coin in his hands. “Was just doing my duty,” he responds, listlessly.

“So, you’re not an alien?”

Zack looks at the man. “… What?”

“Barton and I had a bet going with Natalia and Stark that the Power Rangers were aliens of some kind.”

Zack raises an eyebrow at that. “I still could be an alien. I mean, look at Thor. Dude looks like a human.”

“Yeah, but you talk like an annoying Earth teen, so I’m thinking I lost a bet.”

Zack gives an indignant squawk but the Winter Soldier crosses his arms, daring him to deny everything.

“I’m older than I look,” Zack mutters back.

“Sure, kid.”

Zack rolls his eyes and gives up on the discussion, trying to move his leg some instead.

“You should wrap that. I don’t have any fabric to spare though.”

Zack does some quick thinking. “I could morph and command the armor to tighten around that area some. Actually, being morphed should help me heal faster in general.”

“Morph?” Bucky asks.

“It’s what we call it when we bring out our armor.”

“Wait, the armor is in you?”

“In a way, yeah.”

“I was wondering why there weren’t pieces of it spread around.”

Zack looks back at his coin. “I really don’t know all of the details about how it works. I shouldn’t be telling you even this much, but …,” he trails off, lost again in his failure to conceal himself.

Bucky notices how troubled the kid looks. “How important is it that no one knows your identity?”

Zack snorts. “It’s like rule one of being a Power Ranger. Wait, no. Maybe rule three.”

“I won’t tell anyone then.”

Zack looks at the Winter Soldier, shocked. “What? Really?”

“Sure,” he shrugs easily. “All I know about you is that you’ve got a smart mouth and you’re easy on the eyes. I don’t even know your name.”

Zack knows the man was saying that to lighten the mood, but he takes the bait anyway and smirks. “Why, Mr. Barnes, look at you giving me compliments and trying to get my name. I do believe you’re a taken man.”

It’s Bucky’s turn to snort. “Sure am. How about you? I was genuinely curious about you and the Red Ranger.”

Zack’s blush hits him full force as he remembers what the Winter Soldier had asked him while he was setting his knee. “Uhhh, umm …”

“Because I was listening to all of the comm chatter. Every time you addressed him, there was some kind of innuendo thrown in there. You’re almost as bad as Stark with Banner.”

“Wait, are Tony Stark and Bruce Banner a thing?”

“Don’t try to stall out of the question.”

Zack stares at the imposing man and sighs, resigned to exposing yet another thing to him. “Red and me … we’re working on it.”

||

“Only two more Leviathan ships left, folks,” Hawkeye says. “Time to start thinking about ground strategy.”

“And time to figure out what the hell they’re here for in the first place,” Stark adds.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Trini says. “Has anyone else noticed that more of those ugly goons have come around the Trader Joe’s, but they’re not, like, going in there? Just surrounding it.”

“Yellow, you’re near the Trader Joe’s?” Jason asks.

“Uh, yeah. I just had to at least protect him,” _goddammit Trini_ , she chastises herself, “uh, I mean the area since we can’t get in there yet to rescue Black Ranger and Winter Soldier.”

“Understood,” because, yeah, Jason was seriously thinking about doing that himself, but he couldn’t break away from his end of the boulevard.

“Yellow, you’re probably close enough to use your scanners,” Billy says, “to check for, umm … to check for life signs.”

“I’ve got scanners?” Trini blurts out. “I mean, yeah, of course! I was totally going to use my scanners. Which I knew I had.”

She pushes some button she’s never tried before and a light shoots from her Zord, sweeping the area. “Oh, thank God. Two life signs.” Some whoops can be heard over the comms. “But that must mean he’s injured or unconscious,” or not morphed, she leaves out, “if he’s not responding to our communications.” There’s a different colored blip near the two life signs. “And, guys, there’s something else down there with them. Something emitting a lot of energy. It’s not of this planet.”

“That’s it!” Billy says. “That must be what the Chitauri are after.”

“So, the Chitauri are actually smart enough not to go straight underground to retrieve the object and risk a cave-in,” Stark says.

“They’re trying to win this fight first,” Cap reasons.

“Well, they’re not going to,” Jason says. “Pink, Iron Man, handle the last of the Leviathans. Every other Ranger and Avenger, form a perimeter around the Trader Joe’s and work your way toward it, picking off any Chitauri standing in your way. Rangers, once you’re so close that you risk collapsing the ground or buildings, jump out of your Zords and fight on the ground. What do you say, Cap?”

“Agreed, Red Ranger. It’s time to finish this.”

||

Zack gingerly gets himself standing with the help of the Winter Soldier. “Hey, man, how are you not injured at all?”

“Landed on a bunch of Chitauri bodies. And, maybe, a bit on top of you,” Bucky finishes with a mutter.

“Right, of course,” Zack huffs. He finally takes in their surroundings once he’s standing. “What the hell is this? How can there be such deep tunnels down here?” Zack then remembers the spaceship underground in Angel Grove. “You know what? Nevermind. This is the work of aliens.”

Bucky raises an eyebrow at the kid’s certainty. “An hour ago, I thought you were an alien.”

“I might not be an alien, but what I’m about to show you definitely is. So, trust me. This,” he waves at their surroundings, “is alien shit. Now step back some. I gotta morph.”

Bucky does as he’s told.

Zack closes his eyes to center himself. He takes a few deep breaths, and just because it makes him smile and think of Jason, he murmurs the team leader’s catchphrase. “It’s morphin’ time.”

The morphing process starts with the light in his chest. The armor then grows from the bottom of his spine and wraps around him. It takes about a minute.

And it’s still amazing.

The Winter Soldier is looking at him with awe. Zack can’t help but smirk and blush behind his mask.

Then the rush of chatter hits him under his helmet, and he realizes he can still talk with his team. “Guys! Hey! It’s me! It’s Black Ranger, can you read me?”

The chatter stops instantly, and Trini’s the first to scream at him. “What the fuck happened to you?!”

“Sorry, Yellow, everyone. I, uh,” he looks at Bucky for inspiration for an excuse as to why he wasn’t answering them. He goes with mostly the truth. “I was unconscious. Just woke up.”

“Are you injured?” he hears Jason ask at the same time Captain America asks, “How’s Bucky?”

“We’re okay, everyone. The Winter Soldier is uninjured, Captain. I dislocated my knee, but it’s back in place and already healing.” He pauses to soak in the relieved sighs. “But that means I can’t make the leap back up to the surface.”

“You shouldn’t even try, Black,” Billy says. “The whole place is on the verge of collapsing. By the way, you happen to see any strange, possibly glowing objects down there?”

Zack looks at the Winter Soldier. “Yo, dude, you see anything weird and glowing?”

They both do sweeping looks of their surroundings. “Something like that?” Bucky points at a light coming from a hole.

“Huh. How’d we miss that?”

Bucky shrugs.

“Yeah, Blue. There’s a glowing thing.” They walk to the hole. “It looks like a big gem.”

“Are you shitting me?!” Bucky shouts out of nowhere.

Zack’s so thrown by the outburst that he makes his mask disappear to look him in the eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“I think it’s another goddamn Infinity Stone.”

“A what now?” Zack asks.

“Just let Steve and the others know.”

“Uh, the Winter Soldier says it’s an Infinity Stone.”

He hears the Avengers collectively groan.

“Right, of course,” Black Widow says. “Marv-, uh, Thanos really needs a new shtick.”

“That’s what the Chitauri are here for,” Jason says. “They’re centered on you guys and the Trader Joe’s. Just sit tight. We’re headed your way.”

“I’ll be waiting, Red.” Zack can’t keep the fondness out of his voice.

“All right, let’s win this for the team leaders’ boyfriends!” Iron Man punctuates his statement by destroying the last Leviathan. “I mean, seriously, what are the odds they’d get trapped together?”

“Tony …” Cap gives a tired warning.

“Oh, my God,” Jason moans in embarrassment. Aww, his boyfriend (and, yeah, Jason’s totally his boyfriend now because Iron Man says so) endures so much.

“And, Black, don’t touch the stone!”

“I’m not gonna touch it, Blue! Would you forgive me for touching your armor already and come get us?” He looks up at the Winter Soldier. “So, I guess we’re the damsels in distress in this story. We’ve got to wait for rescue.”

Bucky huffs, still looking in the hole. “Can’t believe an Infinity Stone is buried underneath a fucking Trader Joe’s.”

Zack’s face breaks into the biggest grin. “Yeah, speaking of dumb places to find powerful stones …”

||

“Sounds like your man accidentally decapitated some more Chitauri,” Zack says, throwing another rock at the Infinity Stone. They’re sitting on the edge of the hole.

Bucky snorts. “Accidentally on purpose, you mean. Here’s a secret: He throws that shield at odd angles just to see what the hell will happen.”

“If I had that shield, none of the decapitations would be an accident. It’s rule one of fighting zombie-like armies. You go for the head, man.”

||

“Pink and Yellow are totally fangirling over Black Widow right now. They’re all, ‘Oh, Black Widow, you are soooo skilled and fierce,’ ” Zack says in a high-pitch voice. “Ugh, they’re embarrassing themselves.”

“Okay, stud, what are you going to say when you come face-to-face with her?”

Zack’s eyes widen. “Am I really going to meet her?”

“Pfft, she ain’t dying up there. What are you going to say?”

“I, uh,” Zack opens and closes his mouth, words not quite working right for him, “nice … hair?”

Bucky’s outraged. “That was _pathetic_. You sure the Red Ranger likes you?”

“Yo, that’s not fair. We were friends first,” Zack defends. “Then handjobs got involved-”

“Oh, God, fucking stop talking right now!”

||

“Aww, Pink and Hawkeye are bonding over their mutual love of shooting people with pointy things.”

Bucky’s followed Zack’s lead and chucks his own rocks at the Infinity Stone. “It’s really great there’s another superhero around who uses a bow and arrow. The criticism Barton gets for using them is really unfair.”

“Hey, are Black Widow and him a thing? I always wondered.”

“Nah, he’s married with a few kids.” He throws another rock. “Because God forbid a relationship arc set up in the first movie carryover and develop in the sequel.”

||

“Under a damn _Krispy Kreme_?!”

||

“I’m gonna touch it!”

“Nope, no, you don’t.” Bucky holds Zack back from the Infinity Stone with the robot arm. “You promised blue boy.”

“Sorry, sorry!” He stays put on the edge of the hole. “Red really is, like, 98 percent of my impulse control. One week, he was gone on a family vacation, and I just cut off all the sleeves on my shirts.”

||

“So, after Steve and Tony calmly and rationally compromised on the Sokovia Accords, Steve and his friend Sam found me in Romania living off plums and convinced me to come back with them to the States. Now the Avengers have bi-weekly group therapy sessions, and Tony and me are working through the whole killing his parents thing.”

“I’m glad everything worked out so well for you,” Zack says, sincerely. “Because I hated the Civil War comics.”

||

“You and Captain America ever have a threesome with Thor?”

That, of course, is the moment Steve and Jason drop in through the hole above.

Zack quickly morphs his mask back, and they get up from the ground.

“Took you long enough, pal,” the Winter Soldier says to Captain America, who doesn’t say anything in return, simply going in for a fierce hug.

Jason and Zack, on the other hand, stand awkwardly in front of each other like the emotionally constipated teenagers they are.

“So, are all the bad guys dead?” Zack asks.

Jason takes a cue from the Captain and doesn’t respond, simply moving closer to Zack. Jason’s helmeted head shifts up and down, letting Zack know Jason’s looking him over for injuries. The Red Ranger releases a long breath and looks over to Steve and Bucky. “Uh, Captain, Mr. Barnes, could you two turn around for a moment?”

The men look at each other to silently check if they’re good with the request. They shrug and do as asked.

Jason morphs his mask off and motions his hand for Zack to do the same. They look each other in the eyes for a minute, reassuring each other that they made it through this latest harrowing event okay. Then the two slowly and sweetly kiss, lips content with softly brushing one another. Jason’s holding Zack chin and is the one to break the kiss just a fraction. “I hear you told Captain America that I’m your boyfriend,” he murmurs.

Zack smiles in response. “Lies and slander, Red. There’s no way I’d be dumb enough not to tell you to your face first that that’s what I want.”

“Huh, well,” Jason hums, “I can’t wait for you to get around to telling me, or better yet, _showing me_ later.” He brushes against Zack for one more kiss before he morphs his mask back on his face.

Zack lets out a long sigh. “You think Thor would join us?” he asks after he morphs his mask back on too.

“What activity would I be joining you for, Ranger in Black?” Thor asks through the comms.

Oh, shit. Zack forgot to mute his microphone. Jason smacks him hard in the chest.

“I bet I know what he’s asking about,” Trini can be heard saying. “Ignore him, Thor.”

“You are the worst wingman, Yellow,” Zack mutters.

“Oh, please,” Kimberly says. “Even with Red’s help, you couldn’t _handle_ Thor’s hammer.”

“Pink!” Jason squawks.

“I don’t get it,” Billy wonders. “Why would Black and Red even try to handle Thor’s hammer? You guys do know Thor is the only one who can lift it?”

“Hey, living Skittles?” Iron Man interrupts. “As fun as this sexy banter is, can we pull our boys out from the ground and retrieve the mega dangerous magic rock now?” 

The Rangers half-ignore him and keep up the chatter, but Kim’s been hovering above the hole in her Zord waiting for the four men underground to climb the awaiting ladder and be pulled to safety, so they really haven’t been delaying anything.

Bucky and Steve reach the ladder first. Meanwhile, the still-bickering Red and Black Rangers aren’t too far behind.

Steve glances at them. “I guess you lost that bet, huh?”

“Oh, yeah,” Bucky huffs. “But we saved the day, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad.” He looks fondly at the Black Ranger for a second before turning to Steve and pulling him into a brief kiss. “Plus, I have our threesome with Thor to look forward to.”

-end-


End file.
